As a climber, I am concerned that I will almost certainly have arthritis in my hands one day. Does anyone know of any preventitive measures that can be taken against this? The only things I could find on the net were: drink water, eat salt, drink green tea.

I agree i doubt you'll get arthritis from rock climbing. Unless you would get it later in life wether or not you rock climbing. I think its good to try and prevent it though so drink the green tea and stuff. Jade Dragon Peral is a very good type of jasmine and you can re use it like 6 times, so theres some tea info for you.

Sore joints does not necessarily lead to arthritis. Sore joints can be muscle and tendon damage due to normal exercise and use. Arthritis is the deterioration of the cartilage between the joints. This is much more common in knees due the the stress and weight that the knees must absorb on a continual basis.

As a climber, I am concerned that I will almost certainly have arthritis in my hands one day.

Why do you think you'll get arthritis in your hands from climbing? I know many long-term climbers. None have arthritis in their hands.

-Jay

It seems to me that strenuous, frequent climbing is not good for the joints in your fingers. I know my fingers are often sore after a good weekend on rock.

Sore does not = arthritis. My understanding has always been that certain types of arthritis are strongly hereditary and others are trigered by traumatic events- but soreness is not a damaging traumatic event.

Nobody can be fully sure that what will happen in future. If you have got any knee or joint injuries during rock climbing than you may be affected by arthritis. But there are some techniques by which you can prevent arthritis. Like Do some workouts or some low impact activities like yoga, swimming, cycling Start diet plan for yourself tact with more protein oriented foods Manage with some herbs which can be beneficial for joint pains

Sore fingers does not mean you will get arthritis, your fingers will strengthen over time. Fingers do not have alot of muscle and so any strength in them comes from ligaments/tendons which take a lot longer to strengthen than muscles do.

I unfortunately have an old knee injury so have trouble with it every once in a while and doctors said I could be starting arthritis already and have put me on joint supplements. I can say it is a very different sort of pain-feels alot deeper than a normal injury/tired muscles

I wish that sore fingers did not equal arthritis for me! In my case, I do have arthritis. I have a ganglion cyst on one finger and herberdon nodes on some of the others.

It's likely not climbing related, but, indoor climbing sure does a number on my digits (fingers and toes). Everything feels better when I climb outdoors. Although there is evidence that it's bad, I take "Vitamin I" or Naproxen before my indoor sessions.

The cyst is starting to bother me, but, I am not going to do anything about it until next November. I have already started my indoor season training and I am loathe to stop and start again.

Osteo-arthritis in my lower back and knees. Most of the crap the doc perscribed for me did not work and was bad for me anyway. Like Bextra, Vioxx...

Glucosamine and Chondroitin didn't really do much for me.

There's some empirical evidence that reasonable physical activity is helpful. Seems to be in my case, anyway. Like you, mostly I just try an OTC pain reliever before/after climbing.

Someone told me about this stuff called Zyflamend. Supposed to help with inflammation. "Snake oil" I thought to myself. Didn't bother trying it. But then she gave me some and I figured "why not?" I was surprised. I does seem to help quite a bit. I think it's made by New Chapter. I have no relationship with them, just thought I'd pass it on. YMMV.

[quote "reprieve"] .. Does anyone know of any preventitive measures that can be taken against this? .[/quote]

You take a dead cat and go and get into a graveyard 'long about midnight when somebody that was wicked has been buried; and when it's midnight a devil will come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see 'em, you can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear 'em talk; and when they're taking that feller away, you heave your cat after 'em and say, 'Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, arthritis follow cat, I'm done with ye!'